Flixton

Walking from Dutton's Pond to Jack Lane

It occurred to me that Flixton's only as far away as Sale Water Park so I decided to go and have an explore of the fields and woods I've puzzled over as the train travelled between Flixton and Irlam. It would give me the opportunity to get a few more oddly-composed photographs of where a warbler was a moment ago.

First stop was Dutton's Pond, which was modestly busy but that's only to be expected as it was lunchtime and it's right next to the housing estate. Everyone was being sensible so no worries. The trees along the paths were thick with blackcaps, chiffchaffs and robins. A dozen mallard on the pond were accompanied by seven ducklings and a pair of Canada geese had six goslings.

Walking down the lane towards Jack Lane the blackcaps and chiffchaffs gave way to whitethroats as the country became more open. A great spotted woodpecker flew from one of the hawthorns in one of the fields over towards Dutton's Pond.

Arriving at what I discovered was Jack Lane Local Nature Reserve (a thickly tree-lined lozenge filled with reeds and yellow flag) the first of two reed warblers was singing near the path. From here on the path was very quiet, once I passed Jack Lane I only met one person, twice. I scanned the air over the paddocks in the vain hopes of seeing the first swallows of the day. I generally assume that every field of horses always has a flock of swallows but this year I'm having to revise this.

The path got a lot rougher once I got to the corner where it meets the Ship Canal and runs along the margin towards Irlam Locks. My first gadwall for a couple of months, a female, was on the canal just here. Four cormorants flew over and half a dozen mallard loafed about on the Irlam side of the canal.

Black-headed gulls and oystercatcher, Flixton water treatment works

At this point the path disappears completely and you find yourself walking along the boundary wall of the canal. Just after this you get a close view of the water treatment works. A few dozen black-headed gulls were joined by an adult herring gull, a couple of oystercatchers and fifty or sixty starlings. I was reminded of the latrine orderly's line in Spike Milligan's war memoirs: "It may be shit to you but to me it's bread and butter."

And then I got to the end of the path. If you look at a map it looks like the path meets the beginning of Irlam Road and you can carry on down towards Town Gate and the Millennium Nature Reserve. In fact there's a big metal fence with spikes on top in the way. So I had to turn back and retrace my steps back to Jack Lane. This turned out to be good news as I was just getting to the bit where I was walking the wall when a male peregrine barrelled low along the canal and over the locks. I also got the first hirundine of the day: a single sand martin.

Walking down Jack Lane my world view was restored a little by the appearance of a couple of swallows over one of the paddocks. Then I encountered the one and only sour note of the day: a couple and their brood, all on bikes, decided to block the road as they decided which path they were going to take. I waited to let them make their minds up then spent the next hundred yards having them cycling past to and fro as they all decided to go off in different directions and had to be shepherded back to mummy and daddy then mummy and daddy went in different directions then… well, as you can imagine I was glad to see the back of them. Everyone else I encountered, walkers, cyclists and fishermen, were brilliant.

Anyway, I took the footpath across a field full of magpies and woodpigeons and rejoined the path to Sutton's Pond. At the end instead of turning left to the pond I turned right, walked under the little railway bridge and carried on down to Mersey View and Carrington Road. Taking a bit of a punt I spent five minutes scanning the river from the bridge at the top of Flixton Road (what we used to call "the mile road" because it's long, open and dead straight). I was rewarded by a fine male grey wagtail feeding in the deep shadows of a large willow tree's roots.

All in all a very nice walk, and very rewarding too.